UNC: Lay Paria tragedy report in Parliament

Anticipating that the commission of enquiry (CoE) into the Paria tragedy will keep the November 30 deadline to submit the final report of the findings, Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh is appealing for the report to be laid in the Parliament in its entirety.

“When the report is given to Her Excellency (President) Christine Kangaloo, we call on the Prime Minister to lay the report in its entirety in the Parliament and sent to the office of the DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions) and let the chips fall where they may as it relates to whether anybody is culpable in terms of negligence at Paria.”

Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar supported the call as they addressed a cottage meeting in Couva South on Monday night.

“I support the call by Indarsingh that the Paria report must not get lost, sidestepped, moved away. It has to come in (to the Parliament) to be made public to the people of TT,” Persad-Bissessar asserted.

Indarsingh expressed some fear that the report on the death of four divers – Fyzal Kirban, Kazim Ali Jr, Rishi Nagassar and Yusuf Henry - in an undersea pipeline while doing maintenance work for Paria Fuel Trading Company Ltd, might not reach Parliament.

Saying he was casting no aspersions on the President, who was an honourable person in terms of conduct, Indarsingh recalled under another president, “The police merit list disappeared from the President’s House."

He referred to the withdrawal of the police merit list by former chair of the Police Service Commission (PSC) Bliss Seepersad shortly after it was submitted to then President Paula Mae Weekes.

That list was to be used to select a new commissioner of police, and had placed former police commissioner Gary Griffith at the top of the seven shortlisted candidates for the post.

The UNC had accused Rowley of ‘intercepting’ the list. Rowley admitted to having a discussion with Seepersad over the granting of firearm users licenses (FUL) during Griffith’s tenure.

That fiasco caused the collapse of the Seepersad-led PSC.

“I am pleading with you, Your Excellency, when the report is made public by (CoE chairman) Jerome Lynch, KC, it is bound with the fullest level of national security, so that it can make its way to the Parliament.

“We do not want it to disappear. We do not want it to be sent to the office of the Attorney General for sanitisation.”

Indarsingh argued, “This government has history. Never forget in an investigation into sexual harassment allegations against a sitting minister of sports, the PM hastily convened a committee of three women to compile a report.

“The report was compiled and up to today, that report cannot see the light of day.”

He pointed out that the committee appointed by the Prime Minister to investigate sexual harassment and wrongful dismissal allegations made by the personal assistant of then sports minister Darrly Smith.

The committee comprising former permanent secretary Jackie Wilson, Women’s Institute for Alternative Development (WINAD) executive director Folade Mutota and attorney Elaine Green, had submitted the report.

The report was never made public as it was allegedly prepared in breach of natural justice. People against whom allegations were made were not allowed to respond was the reason cited.

The Paria commission has convened a virtual sitting on Wednesday.